T grip symptoms and conditions

What a wonderful site.. thanks for all of you and your stories. I too was a Lipitor user ... 20mgs/day for at least 6 years. I didn't notice any problems until last summer. I couldn't grip a golf club so I didn't play all summer. My doc told me it was arthritis. Strange, no history and never had any problems til then. As the months went on, things got worse. Burning in my upper left arm muscle, so intense it would cause me to have to sit down. Heart racing, pain in back, shoulder and jaw, I thought I was having a heart attack. Started reading about Lipitor and told doctor I wanted off. Of course he said no way and he did an MRI thinking it was skeletal. He sent me to a neurologist, who immediately told me I have statin myopathy. Cause...Lipitor!!! Amazing he admits this, also told me his own doc prescribed it for him and he will not take it because he sees too many patients with these side effects. I am liking him and his honesty. I have been off Lipitor for 2 weeks now. Hands are much better but muscle weakness and burning and sometimes tremors persist but I am optimistic that this may take time but I will recover.

September 30, 2007
I took Flomax for three weeks and stopped using it due to its side effects that were totally unacceptable. After my first week of use, I experienced significant back pain over the lower left and right side of my back. The pain would linger throughout the day and dissipated by late afternoon. I also experienced a subtle chest pain along with significant joint pain in each elbow. The elbow joint pain lasted well into the afternoon too. The subtle chest pain would disappear by Noon. What really concerned me was a general weakness in my arms, hands and legs. I couldn't grip, push or pull as I could before, and my legs felt weaker when exercising. In fact, my right arm (I'm right handed) felt much like a limb just "waking up from being asleep". I did not have a tingling sensation, but a heaviness and weakness that was a great concern to me. The urinary flow with Flomax was not great, but OK. After the first week, my doctor wanted me to take two 0.4mg Flomax tablets. I tried two tablets for two days. Two 0.4mg Flomax tablets doubled the intensity of my side effects. I immediately went back to taking one 0.4mg Flomax tablet. I stopped using Flomax after 21 days. Enough was enough. For me, as a 59 year old man, this drug caused more pain than help. I am now on Terazosin and this seems to be working out OK.

About the stroke:

It was a Monday morning, around 6.30. First I dropped a cup, but in a weird way, like my fingers weren't working. I couldn't grip. Then, when I started speaking, first to my husband and then on waking my kids, I couldn't speak, or rather, the words came out wrong. (I said to hubby "Here's your number" instead of "Here's your tea" and all I could say in the kids' rooms was "How's morning?") I was so scared. My husband took me to the ER and they diagnosed a mini-stroke although fortunately the tests showed no permanent damage.

They were mystified because I had no risk factors whatsoever--I'm a normal weight, low cholesterol, non-smoker. I exercise and have low blood pressure etc. They carried on doing tests and eventually found I have a 5 mm hole in my heart. This means that clots that form are more likely to be dangerous to me--it's not why the clot formed that caused the stroke. That had to be due to the Yasmin.

Anyway they took me off the pill mid-cycle and at first I experienced no symptoms, but since my last but one period I've felt generally horrible--lower abdominal pains, constipation, anxiety and for the last two weeks this dizziness and fluttery feeling in chest, arms and legs. I just hope I get better soon.

Anna